Imaginatively Titled AAAAAaaaargh!

It was going to be called A&E but things have moved on since then...

I had an accident yesterday. I wasn't participating in extreme sports or parachuting, I wasn't even hillwalking or cycling. No, instead, I was walking into the park with my children and I fell into a little crevice in the road...literally fell right into it. As I disappeared into this tiny little hole, all 8 of the bags I was carrying...yes, 8.....dropped to the ground with me and fell on top of my ankle which was looking at me from a position you should never really see an ankle look at you from.

I lay there for a moment, wanting to shout, swear and cry at the top of my voice but being surrounded by not only my own children but half the kids from school, I held it all in. That's what we do isn't it? I held it in, not wanting to frighten them with the string of expletives going off in my head like fireworks and when one kindly lady asked if I was ok, I said "...fine, thanks".

There was a queue forming behind me as I of course fell over at the entrance where there is a big daft bollard that stops anyone from getting past. So people queued behind me and if there is one thing British people don't like to do, it's queue. The grumblings began and one 'lady' attempted to cartwheel her pram past me. LADY, your pram wasn't going anywhere, except over my withered leg!

So, I got up and gathered the bags, one lovely little girl helping me (thank you Amy)and walked off to sit under the tree and lick my wounds. I pretended to be on the phone so that I could sniffle to myself without anyone asking me if I was ok and to give me time to survey the damage: an enormous lump appeared on my knee and I was bleeding....I was wearing new linen cream trousers....oh yes my friend, this was physical damage, as painful as the gouge with bits of grit in it...another on my ankle, grazing all over and a torn toenail. Better cancel that pedicure.

I'd also banged my head a bit...don't know how that happened....and was feeling pretty sorry for myself which only lasted a moment and I was soon back to chatting to parents, handing out water and shouting "get out of there!". Fast forward to dinner time; we have a little friend over and everyone wants differing things to eat so in my painful, hobbled and woozy state, I complied. By the time they were all happily fed, I was feeling pretty bad.

My ankle continued to swell at a rate of noughts and my headache was getting worse. So, should I have went to A&E? Of course I should have, if only because of the incredibly swelling ankle but I'm always loathe to visit the doctors and waste their time so I thought I'd wait. So I waited until the swelling was the size of my head and thought maybe, maybe I should think about going but Lucy started to feel ill.

And then the story is a haze of cleaning up sick, hugging a crying child, bathing her at 4am, realising she'd been sick all the way from her room into her sisters room and into the bathroom...husband was not impressed at all....and we both began that ritual that all mums and dads know of filling up a bucket with soapy water and disinfectant, the early birds chirping outside, the odd fox cry reaching our ears whilst eyes peer out from heavy lids and grumble at the insanity of it all.

Today was supposed to be a lovely new recipe day as I got a beautiful new cake book....but food and baking and all that jazz will have to wait; Lucy is off school, I can't walk properly, I'm supposed to be packing today, cleaning, have a meeting, buy end of term gifts for the teachers (we finish tomorrow), bake for the lunch tomorrow and generally run around as usual but a visit to the doctor is necessary and everything will be done at slow speed.

Thank you for reading my rant, now that I've written it down I really feel I should delete it as it is hardly in the spirit of positive posting but well, this is real life, isn't it? I leave you with the following poem which tomorrow I will disagree with heartily, but for today, it suits my mood perfectly....

Never cross your bridges till the bridge comes into view
Never go to meet your problems...wait a day or two.
Circumstances arise that rearrange the sorted pack;
Never take a load until it's placed upon your back.
Half lives many miseries upon ourselves we bring
But how often comes along the unexpected thing?
Trust not in yourself clever tricks and common sense
But trust in the ways and the wiles of Providence.